In the American version, Marie's friend and her friend's family are Americans living in France. I wonder why they decided to add that in instead of just going with a direct translation of the dialogue.
D'oh! Well come on, teletubby! Teleport us to Mars! - Tammie Brown
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I thought it was done to explain the American accents in the French countryside to U.S. viewers. Pretty simple, really. I saw this film in the U.S. and subtitles just don't go well over here. People don't want to read them. But this movie was rare because it's not often at all that a foreign horror film with dubbed dialogue gets a theatrical release here. I remember thinking how unique that was when I saw it because it almost never happens. We either get American-made films or the occasional Canadian, Australian, or British films, but hardly ever do we see a movie dubbed into English from a foreign language here in the states. I think the change was minor and done to accommodate American audiences who are generally not used to such things.
shareThere was a time in America
during the 60s 70s & 80s and
I wish I was from that time, but
what I've read and heard from my
dad, there was a *beep* of
Foreign dubbed horror films coming
mostly from Italy getting a theatrical
release going into U.S. theaters almost
on a weekly bases. So when I found
out when High Tension was getting a
U.S. theatrical release I was excited
cause I've never seen a dubbed European
horror film on the big American screen before.
I've seen stuff on VHS/DVD from Dario
Argento and Lucio Fulci prior.
I really enjoyed it when I saw it and got
to see it twice. Sadly the movie only
lasted a week in the theater then they
took it out. Which was *beep* I could
see them doing that anyways since it's
European. It's not everyday especially
nowadays you see European horror
movies in the American theaters or
most horror movies in general.
Americans don't watch movies with sub titles because they are (a) lazy (b) ignorant) (c) stupid. Me thinks all three.
shareThere are many Americans that watch and buy movies with subtitles. I guess you don't know any. You should get out more. Or stop being so prejudiced.
shareAmericans don't watch movies with sub titles because they are (a) lazy (b) ignorant) (c) stupid. Me thinks all three.
There are many Americans that watch and buy movies with subtitles. I guess you don't know any. You should get out more. Or stop being so prejudiced.
I'm American and I hate to say it, but I partially agree with "lazy" and "ignorant." Definitely not "stupid," though (which, btw, is very rude to suggest). This isn't an issue of intelligence. It's an issue of conditioning. Unlike in the rest of the world, where reading subtitles is quite common, here in America the vast majority of movies and TV shows are domestic, so most Americans have never HAD to read them, and of course that makes them not want to. It's a vicious cycle in some ways, and you can clearly see that. You can't assess some kind of universal blame on Americans for no wanting to read subtitles, when that's how they've been "programmed" from an early age. I think it's very condescending to make sweeping generalizations. This is not a black and white issue.
Personally, I wouldn't dream in a million years of watching a dubbed movie . . . it completely destroys the subtlety and nuance of an actor's performance. I watch many foreign films and they're subtitled 100% of the time, which is the only way I'll have it. And I'm sure there are many Americans like me. Unfortunately, just not nearly as many as one would hope.
It has more to do with a homogenous culture of 300+ million that speaks a common language. You're not competing with Europe that has 50 different countries, most of which have their own language (some with multiple languages). A 4 hour drive in Europe could put some people into 3 different countries with vastly different cultures while a 8 hour drive in America might not lead anyone into anything but some minor regional cultural differences with people speaking with a slightly different accent from their own.
It has nothing to do with "programming" (or conditioning) in the respect that the people are forced into a particular mindset - just the circumstances that there simply isn't a need to learn another language. To be perfectly frank, English is the language of commerce and millions will never have any need to ever learn another language because there simply isn't a need to do so. People will only have to do so if America becomes truly Balkan-ized.
Nations all across the world dub movies into their native languages. You will often find (though perhaps not as much since the advent of modern "home entertainment systems") a dubbed version of films across European cinemas. Happens all the time in Central and South America too.
Ideally, you really need to have kids learn a language early on in their lives to be really proficient at it, but with the way that the governemnt and society has destroyed the American educational system over the last 35 years or so, I don't believe this will be possible. "Billy doesn't understand math, science and can barely read at his age-level, but he got a feel-good gold star today so everyone wins!"
Personally I watch all my live-action cinema in it's native language with subtitles.
"No, not the mind probe!"
I meant "programming" in the sense that, when one has grown up and lived his or her entire life never needing to read subtitles, it becomes second nature to avoid them. To me, that DOES smack of conditioning. I regularly attempt to get some of my friends and family to watch subtitled movies with me, and I'm consistently met with resistance. "I don't want to watch a movie and try to read at the same time"! I mean, is that ridiculous? We're more than capable of doing both at once. Or at least we SHOULD be. I actually got my niece and a friend from work to watch Martyrs with me a few weeks ago, and they both seemed surprised at how unobtrusive subtitles really are. Which is nothing to say of how traumatized they both were by the film. Lol.
Anyway, I agree with you about our "homogenous" culture. For a country as diverse as the USA, there's also something very insular and provincial about its tastes and preferences. I also agree that the problem is deep-seated and has no hope of quick and easy course-correction.
I still think that programming/conditioning is still a poor choice of words here and smacks of some serious cynicism in it's use here. It's no more "conditioning" than say, learning to hold a fork causes people to reject chopsticks. You'll have many people unwilling (or unable) to use chopsticks, but there's always a certain number of people who will, even if they didn't learn that skill as a young child. Conditioning? Maybe in the most clinical use of the word.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with the homogeneity of the United States. It's a melting pot for the better part of the last 200 years. Only recently have people decried the loss of people's cultures - usually people who support balkan-izaton of the US where people retain their cultural identity, don't attempt to adapt or integrate, and the entire country eventually collapses into very different, divergent regions.
There's a reason why the US is largely the way it is - through integration of generations of English, Germans, Irish, Italians, Russians, Polish, Greek (and every other ethnic or cultural group across the world that has made it to the United States)... traditions have blended together into the soup. Language holds a lot of this together the way it has. With a common language, you can have a massive amount of merging of diverse cultures that would probably not work if the groups tried it anywhere else in the world.
To be fair, I did not mean to offer any "fixes," just stating the realities that if you had people learn another language, you'd have to do it early on in life. And really, there's no reason to because people haven't been able to destroy the United State's existing identity... yet. We'll have a lot more problems on our hands if kids are forced to learn some second or third language just to survive in the United States.
Truthfully, you'd first have to get the youth interested in learning - and that's not going to happen when you have people obsessed with a media that centers around base things like celebrity and trash programming like the vapid garbage on MTV, let alone networks that used to be about learning like TLC, The History Channel or even National Geographic. After you get them interested in learning, you need to bring back the harsh realities to them - failure. If little Billy sucks at school, don't pat him on the back and give him a participation award.
"No, not the mind probe!"
I think "programming" or "conditioning" actually DO convey my meaning properly and are not a "poor choice of words." I find it illogical that you would call their use in this context "cynical," but that's certainly your prerogative. Additionally, I have no interest in a treatise on the cultural identity of the United States or of any of the other topics you've broached. The original subject was aversion to subtitles; I think you've digressed a bit much for my tastes. But thank you for your input.
shareWe are the super-power. All films should cater to us. Next you'll want us to learn another language.
shareAnd I think that people who say 'Me thinks' should be beaten senselessly, tortured, ripped asunder, killed, and then tortured some more...
With that said, you are likely right about most Americans... (and YES I am one; and YES I do read subs)
I have over 5000 films, many of them very rare and OOP. I LOVE to trade. PLEASE ASK!
believe it or not, I noticed that in the DVD spanish subtitles too, and I'm from argentina!!! you'll see, the dvd audio set-up only included the english and french languages, and I chose obviously the french version and the only subtitles were in spanish and english. the thing is that the spanish subtitles also point in a scene that they're american and all that, something is never said in the french audio. when I saw subtitles apearing on screen but without any audio heard I was like huh??
share